Bremen?s Space Centre was supposed to be the crown jewel in an imaginative waterfront redevelopment ? a massive retail and entertainment complex that would draw more than 1m visitors a year and create thousands of jobs in the economically depressed North Sea port city.

Yet two years after it was completed, the 66,000 sq m facility that cost ?650m ($778m, ?444m) to build is deserted. A shopping mall with room for 120 outlets is locked up having never opened. A replica Ariane 4 rocket looks comically out of place alongside harbour cranes, grain silos and acres of Tarmac ? scant evidence that an aerospace exhibition centre was once there.